Secretary: 7 Things You Should Know (Explained)


Secretarial roles have been around since offices were invented and not going away anytime soon.

A secretary, an administrative assistant is a person whose work consists of supporting management, including executives, using a variety of project management, communication, and organizational skills.

However, this role should not be confused with the role of an executive secretary whose role comes with authority is to announce important events within an organization.

So let’s discuss 7 things you should know about being a Secretary,

Secretary a Dead-End Role?

No, a Secretary is not a Dead-End Role. Secretary roles allow you to build relationships across the organization, exposing you to career opportunities and promotions.

What is it like being a Secretary?

No day is ever the same. Being a secretary is generally a fun and enjoyable role. There are a variety of tasks to you occupied throughout the day. From organizing meetings to taking calls, to sending and receiving emails.

Other tasks generally involve typing, relaying messages, maintaining diaries, and arranging appointments. As a secretary, you get to talk to many people throughout the day.

So now I have answered the main question, let’s explore common questions regarding what is it like being a secretary, administrative assistant?

What do you do as a Secretary?

The role of a secretary is to ensure the smooth operation of an organization, taking care of the administrative and organization functions.

The secretarial role can also be called an Administration assistant or Administration Coordinator role. These titles are interchanged as the roles perform the same tasks.

The role usually consists of the following tasks

  • Answering and making phone calls
  • Sending and receiving emails
  • Organizing meetings
  • Maintaining diaries
  • Managing database
  • typing, preparing, and collating reports
  • Liaising and event organizing

Being a Secretary Stressful?

Yes, at times being a Secretary is stressful. Secretary may work in fast-paced work environments or have a high level of administrative responsibility. They may feel stress from having to manage high call volume and administrative requests from staff.

Having to try and manage multiple activities at once can cause stress.

Then there are irrational bosses that request things to be done at the last minute, just as your about to walk out the door at 5 pm.

Or something happens outside of your control and you get blamed for it.

More often being a secretary is not a stressful job. Having good communication skills, being able to handle difficult employees and bosses will certainly help.

If you are currently in a secretarial role and finding it stressful dealing with difficult employees or bosses check out this online course that helps

“Workplace Management – Positive Management”, which teaches how to deal with difficult workplace situations and how to sustain a positive workplace.

Being a Secretary Boring?

Being a secretary is generally not boring. The role of a secretary is a varied one, having to perform a multitude of tasks.

There are people to speak with, bookings to be made, appointments to be organized.

Like any role, however, there will be downtimes, when the clock seems to be slow or malfunctioning. Making it to 5 o’clock so you can go home feels painful.

Here are some tips to make use of the downtime

Ask your boss for more work

Asking for more work is seen as being proactive and wanting to be valuable to an organization.

This is something that bosses like and will look favorably on you.

There is always a risk that you will receive tasks that are not very enjoyable.

To counter this, identify something of interest or business improvement that you can take on.

This will help you build skills and work on something that you will enjoy.

Self Improvement

These days there are heaps of online courses that are easily accessible and quite often free.

This is great because do have to worry about not being at your desk or asking to take time off to attend a course.

So once you have identified a course you are interested in you can stay sited in your seat and undertake the course online.

Pausing the course in case you have to speak with someone or organize an appointment.

Offer help to other workmates

Another option is to offer help to other workmates who have heaped on. This is a great way to build rapport.

And when you are snowed under your workmates will be more inclined to help you out. You may even learn something new.

Do Secretaries Work Long Hours?

Secretaries don’t work long hours, they typically work office hours from 9 am till 5 pm, eight hour day, or 40 hour week.

There might be times where additional hours but these are the exceptions to the rule.

Final Thoughts

A secretarial, administration role is a fun and varied role.

A role that can lead to other secretarial, administration-type roles, or a stepping stone to other roles.

The goods news is, there are plenty of secretarial, administration-type roles that won’t be taken over by robots or outsourced anytime soon.

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